At the present time there is a great need to remove the tremendous amount of unwanted heat that accumulates around work producing devices such as, electric motors, generators, transformers and massive electronic components as well as around combustible engines and other heat producing devices. Said heat producing devices are generally housed in an enclosure like a cabinet with vents therein, thus creating a confined area for heat accumulation at and adjacent to said devices. Since work devices convert a great deal of wasted energy into heat then a means must be available to remove such unwanted heat immediately because as the temperature therein remains high or continues to increase then the efficiency of said devices will be decreased proportionally, thus greatly increasing the cost of operation due to the loss of energy as heat, as a fact heat accumulation will also reduce the life of said device causing early failure.
The only method presently used for heat removal is to mount high speed fans in the enclosure adjacent to such heat source and direct said fans to force air over said heat source towards the vents or openings in said enclosure or cabinet. Unfortunately said vents are generally located in the lower part of the back panel, and the fact that hot air will rise, such heat will be entrapped in the upper chamber of said cabinet therein; futhermore the present system tries to disperse such heat into the adjacent area which is quickly heated to the same temperature, thereby causing an added heat build up adjacent thereto. Also the high speed fans are very noisy and ineffectively blow some of the heat through the vents, whereas the balance of the heat is also entrapped therein thus creating a very inefficient system.
Presently heat is transferred from a heat source to another area to do work such as the heating of rooms or offices to a certain temperature. This transfer of heat is accomplished by heating air in a large centralized furnace then using expensive and inefficient duct works with blowers to force such heated air through said ducts to designated areas. Since there is a great heat loss and a drastic reduction in the velocity in moving such heated air, which is due to the effects of friction per foot traveled in said ducts, thus requiring such air to be heated to a high temperature at the furnace then use powerful high speed blowers to move such heated air just to compensate for the negative effects of friction. It is common knowledge that rooms more distant from the heat source experience a very weak output of heat therein; therefore the final air temperature in each of the rooms will vary drastically and this is further magnified when the heating control thermostat is only located and operated from just one of said rooms.
In hot water heating systems pumps are used to circulate the hot water through heating cores for area heating. This system is expensive to install, operate and to maintain as well as having a very slow start up heating time rate. As an example the circulating hot water heating system in automobiles is very slow to initially heat the inside of the passenger compartment to a comfortable temperature, especially when the outside temperature is at or below zero degree centrigrade. Furthermore the high speed water pump in said system puts a heavy load on the engine, thus increasing fuel comsumption and said water pump generally has a short life and is expensive to replace.
The present state-of-the-art relating to the heating and storage of any type of fluid in an enclosed chamber, whereby the molecules of said fluid must move according to the theory of displacement and the law of gravity, thus making said system very slow, inefficient and expensive to operate.
As an example in a conventional hot water heating system the tank is filled with millions of molecules of water at the same temperature, thereby said molecules are in an inert state. To activate the process a heating element is placed below said tank to heat the heavy mass of molecules therein that are in heavy contact with each other, thus only a very small amount of the bottom surface of each molecule is exposed to the heat at the inner surface of the base adjacent to and above said heat source. As each molecule of water is slowly heated it is energized and will try to move upward from said hot base plate against the heavy mass of colder molecules above thereof. At the same instant that a hot molecule leaves said base another molecule must move in to fill such place since there can be no void therein, this is the theory of displacement. Any other hot and energized molecule will resist this exchange; therefore only a colder and less active molecule will be compatible and offer little resistance to such an exchange.
Furthermore a colder molecule of water is heavier than a hotter molecule of water; therefore the downward pull of gravity is greater on a colder molecule, thus each colder molecule will try to move downward by going in between and below the high mass of hotter molecules tightly pressed together thereunder. The entire mass of colder molecules of water are being pulled in a downward direction by the force of gravity, thereby acting like a hugh ram over the entire mass of hotter and lighter molecules thereunder as such as produced at the base above the heat source. Therefore the line adjacent to and above the base where the hotter and colder molecules are in direct contact presents the area where there is a very strong resistive force of position exchange created by the mass density of same. It is apparent that the upward movement of just one hotter molecule of water by gravitational separation would be a very slow and most erratic path since said molecule will encounter thousands of head on collisions with the tightly pressed together mass of heavier colder molecules thereabove as said hotter molecule is forced to the top of the tank by the continual process of displacement, which makes the present system very slow and inefficient, thus the heating and storage of water is presently one of the highest cost items in the household. To conpensate for the very slow heating cycle of the present system the capacity of said tank must be large in order to handle the initial surge of hot water withdrawal and to hold a reserve therein since the volume of hot water created, during constant withdrawal can not equal the output demand, thus the condition of hot water depletion is frequently encountered. The fact that hot water withdrawal is made fron the top of the tank at all times, whereas hot water is always created at the bottom of said tank clearly indicates that said hot water molecules must still travel the erratic collision prone path to the top thereof in a slow and inefficient route. Furthermore this very slow heating cycle requires that the heat source be turned up to a very high energy level to expedite said heating; therefore a safety blow-off valve must be affixed to the top thereof since a thermostat failure will allow the water to reach the boiling point, thus creating steam and a most dangerous condition.
The foregoing explaination of the present molecular flow of fluids in an enclosed chamber whether for heat transfer or for the storage and use of same has been reason that an effective heat transfer device has not been developed and the present hot water heating and storage systems are expensive to install, operate and maintain.
To overcome the shortcomings of the existing methods of removing unwanted heat accummulation at the heat source, the present invention is a long narrow enclosed chamber, filled with a fluid such as water, formed by a long tubular section with a heater cap and an emitter cap connected to the adjacent ends thereof. Said caps are made of an inexpensive material that has a high coefficient of heat conductivity, whereby the inner surface of said heater cap is lined with a thin fibrous and absorbent blanket that will separate and hold droplets or molecules of water in suspension for very rapid heating of said molecules of water. To said blanket is attached one adjacent end of a rope like wick, made of the same material as said blanket, and said wick will extend throughout said tube member and the other adjacent end thereo is fastened to the inner part of the emitter cap. The heater cap is placed near or attached to the heat producing device and the long tube member is extended to a cooler remote area to disperse such heat transferred thereto from the heater cap through the blanket, which heats the water at a very rapid rate, then quickly moves such heat through said tube member to the emitter cap in the cooler remote area to disperse such heat therein. The heat transfer rate is so fast that a drastic reduction of temperature will prevail at the heat producing device, in the enclosure or cabinet as well as the adjacent environment thereto. The embodiment of the invention that deal with the molecular flow of fluids therein is explained in detail when the advantages of the hot water heating and storage system is explained which applies to this device as well.
To overcome the shortcomings of the existing method of using a large furnace to heat air at a central location, to a high temperature, then use high speed blowers to force such heated air through large air ducts into other rooms; the invention previously described will completely eliminate all large and expensive duct works, the high speed blowers and the large furnace with the large air chamber therearound. A plurality of the said heat transfer devices may be used or more advantageously use only one large heater cap with a plurality of branching tube members therefrom, whereby one or more of said tube branch members may be extended and located in each room with an emitter cap on the end thereof; thereby only one small central heating source is needed to heat the heater cap to just a few degrees above the maximum desired temperature. The one large heater cap is very small when compared to the present furnace but is a large or larger cap when compared to the standard small heater caps; therefore the heat source will be small and the energy output will be low as well. The heat from the heat source will be transferred automatically from said source quietly and quickly through the central heater cap, then through the blanket and through the entire length of each tube member, to the emitter caps on the adjacent end thereof to disperse such heat into said room for heating purposes. Moreover the emitter cap may be made of any shape and length, even with cooling fins thereon and a small slow speed fan placed adjacent to and behind said cooling fins to gently circulate such heated air around said room. In addition said emitter cap and fan could be in a recess behind a wall grille, whereas a thermostat could be placed in said room to control the fan and shutter if needed, thereby each room would be heated to and retained at the temperature desired thus completely eliminating the high temperature differential that presently exists in different rooms as produced by the present system.
To overcome the shortcomings of the present slow and inefficient heating systems that use circulating hot water such as in automobiles, the heat transfer device is easy to install, has no pump and has a very fast start up heating cycle. The heater cap, of the invention, would be attached to the automobile's manifold and the tube member would be extended and connected to the automobile's heater core, thereby the emitter end of said invention would now be the existing heater core with its fan that is presently mounted behind and under the dashboard in all automobiles; furthermore said device would be filled with anti-freeze for the winter weather. Since the automobile's manifold is heated to a very high temperature immediately after the engine is started, thus such heat is transferred at a very rapid rate through the heat transfer device into the heater core of the automobile, whereby when the heater is turned on in said automobile and the baffle is opened and the fan is turned on then such heat will be dispersed into the passenger compartment and in a few seconds said compartment would be heated to a comfortable temperature even when the outside temperature is below zero degrees centigrade.
To overcome the shortcomings of the existing methods of heating and storage of water the invention only utilizes the theory of displacement in regard to molecular movement therein, whereas the separation of hot and cold molecules in said chamber by the force of gravity does not apply; therefore the confrontation of hot and cold molecules of water moving in an opposing direction, in the same chamber, causing an erratic and collision prone path for all molecules is completely eliminated. Therefore the heating cycle time of the invention is very short resulting in reducing the size of the present hot water storage tank to only a fraction thereof and also greatly reducing the cost of heating water to a small fraction of the present costs, which is usually the highest cost item in the household.
This is accomplished by the main embodiment of the invention that also applies to all the applications and other devises herein mentioned or explained, whereby the molecular flow of fluids within is in an orderly manner and all molecules will freely flow along the path of least resistance.
The principal object of the invention is to have a thin blanket inner lining in the heater cap or covering the inner surface of the heater plate in the water tank, whereas molecules of colder water are separated and suspended in said blanket. When heat is applied to said heater cap or heater plate then the molecules of water in said blanket will be heated at a very rapid rate because each molecule of water in said blanket will expose a much greater surface area to pick up such heat since they are separated and in suspension therein. When the heated molecule of water is strongly ejected from said blanket it is replaced by a colder less active molecule of water that has traveled from the emitter cap or top of the tank by coming down and through the wick, which is the path of least resistance, then into the blanket. Therefore there is an orderly flow of molecules throughout the heating cycle in a fast and efficient manner the path all molecules will travel is a path of very low resistance and the present erratic collision prone path has been completely eliminated. Since gravity does not affect this system then the layers of hot water molecules will stay at the bottom adjacent to the heat source and build up in said layers while the colder molecules will be in the upper portion of said chamber, thus there are no position exchange of hot and cold molecules in the mainstream but only in the blanket. When there is hot water withdrawal from said tank the outlet for said hot water would be at the bottom of said tank, just above and adjacent to said blanket in the immediate area where hot water is created, thereby under continual withdrawal of hot water the depletion of hot water is eliminated since said molecules of hot water do not have to travel to the top of said tank to the outlet as required in the present system. As a fact the invention only requires that the heat energy source be set at a low level as desired by setting the temperature of the thermostat, which is located at the base above the blanket, whereby even during continual operation with a faulty thermostat the water temperature could not reach or be near the boiling point of water. This is possible because the heating of said water is so fast and the heat loss is so low that the desired water temperature is produced and retained immediately, thereby the heating cycle will exceed the withdrawal rate immediately after the initial withdrawal surge. In fact another variation of the embodiment of the invention will permit in-line direct heating of water, whereby the heating source is turned on when water is passed through said device and a continuous supply of hot water is produced for output.
Since said invention is very simple and has no moving parts or pumps it is apparent that the manufacture of same would be very inexpensive and easy to install and maintain, in fact the invention will operate trouble free for many years.